Sunday, July 30, 2017

Tribute To Joey Dog

Hello everyone. This is a special edition of The Daily Bone and I'm your nostalgic doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


It has been exactly one year since my esteemed colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. We still miss him as much as ever! 


Joey dog was from one of the last litters of cocker spaniel puppies raised by Rita Conlin before she retired. Rita bred not only for conformation, but for temperament. Joey dog was always a patient, gentle soul. Here he is with our Miss Ginger, who was also a Conlin Cocker, and who, incidentally crossed the Bridge in July of 2010. (July is always a tough month for us.)


Miss Rita decided to not dock the tails of her cocker pups.
Joey was always proud of his beautiful tail! 


Ghostwriter says Joey dog had such poise when he walked, even on ice. Here I am slipping and sliding around, while he trots gracefully. 


Of course everyone will remember Joey dog for his flawless food watching technique. 


And his appreciation for food and doggie related funnies.


I learned from the best! 


I miss him a lot!







Saturday, July 22, 2017

Poor Birdie

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this TDB fast breaking news story. I'm your observant doggie reporter and Special Agent Chester L. W. Spaniel live and on location in the back yard. 


I found lots of birdie feathers on the ground under the silver maple tree this afternoon. That can only mean one thing: Something caught a bird and ate it right in my own backyard! 


NO, I did not catch and eat the birdie! It must have been a hawk. Here's the evidence:





Some of the feathers have light orange tips with spots. I'm pretty sure the victim could have been that baby robin I saw the other day. Here's a picture of a baby robin from earlier this season for comparison. Note the speckled orange breast feathers.


I did an extensive search of the crime scene, but did not find any other birdie parts on the lawn.


I did, however, spot some big clumps of feathers on a silver maple branch too high up to get a good picture. As soon as we get a bit of wind, though, I'm sure those will fall down and I can examine them.


This isn't the first time I've found this type of evidence in our yard. Here's a picture of me with my esteemed, late colleague Special Agent Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel on a crime scene from a couple years ago.


There's been a Cooper's hawk sneaking around the neighborhood for the last few years. The victims are usually hapless robins or mourning doves. 


Too bad it wasn't a squirrel or a chipmunk!


We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. 




Thursday, July 20, 2017

Dirty Dog Thursday

Hello everyone. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


There was yet another big thunderstorm today with lots of rain. So I hung out with Dad in the garage/workshop for a while. He was replacing the piece of wallboard that I helped remove a few weeks ago when a stinky chipmunk got stuck behind there. 


If you wish to check out the episode about the stinky chipmunk, please go here:


But don't forget to come back, because I had a lot more fun today to tell you about! 


I like poking around in the garage. There's always something to find in there. Once I found a mummified dead birdie in a corner behind a whole bunch of shovels. Sometimes I find my old missing tennis balls too, or mousie footprints. 


Hey! Check this out! Remember my old employee Mr. Bones Daily? He wasn't much help as a reporter, so I gave him the assignment to keep guard over Dad's workshop. I found him asleep on the job on top of a bunch of boxes and empty pop bottles. Well, I'm not too surprised. He always was a bit of a lazy bones*. 


Fortunately, the storm passed and I got to go outside. There was an angry Mama robin sitting in tree giving me the stink eye, and that low, monotone chirp, chirp, chirp they do when danger is around. Here's why she was so concerned:


See that baby robin sitting on the fence? The Mama bird was worried because it wasn't flying away. 


So I ran up to it to see if I could help. That baby robin popped straight up into the air learned to fly really really fast!


For my help and free flying lesson, the Mama robin dived bombed and screamed at me all the way across the yard! As they say, no good deed goes unpunished!

Silly bird!

It's a bit early for Flower Friday. But ghostwriter is going to visit Oma tomorrow, so might not have time to write then. Surprisingly, the heavy rain didn't destroy everything. 

Phlox and baby's breath.

Liatra.

Hydrangea.

There's a bumper crop of Japanese beetles devouring the roses. Ghostwriter picked twelve of them off this one flower and smashed them on a rock. The little ants will have a feast tonight!


Later in the afternoon, I caught the scent of something in the mud under the hostas.


So I started a serious investigation. 


I hardly ever do any digging. But I was able to create quite a significant hole by the time my humans tried to stop me.


In the process I got good and muddy!


My humans got out my little summer swimming pool, put some water in it, and then tossed me in to rinse off. As I've said before, I really don't mind getting a bath. But then they wouldn't let me outside again without a leash for the rest of the afternoon. So I guess my archeological/forensics dig will have to wait. 


It's a good thing that I'm a very patient doggie.


The excavation will resume tomorrow!



*If you'd like to read my adventures with Bones Daily, please click on these links:

Interview With Bones Daily

No Bones About It

Skeleton Crew


Monday, July 17, 2017

Brain Dead Zombie Monday

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your steadfast doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


It's been a boring day! My ghostwriter is a brain dead zombie because she had to work the overnight 11pm to 7am shift last night. She says if she tries to go to sleep when she comes home in the morning after a night shift, she gets nightmares. So she's been awake since yesterday morning! Hopefully she won't have to do another shift like that again for a long time. 


Anyway, I kind of kept things quiet around here today. 



Non Sequitur

Friday, July 14, 2017

Rain, Mud, and Flower Friday

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your investigative doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


We have had a lot of rain lately. Usually rain doesn't bother me. But the downpour you see in the picture below was a bit too much even for me to go out in! 


Check this out! I found a frog in the garage! Wow! He's a long way from the nearest pond!


Today we finally got some sunny skies!


While doing my rounds in the back yard, I found some pears with bite marks on the ground. 


Some evil miscreants have been stealing pears from our tree. They eat a few bites and then drop it on the ground and leave it lying there. Wasteful little buggers! My esteemed and late colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel would not be happy about that! 

Hey, if you're going to steal one, at least eat it all!

And now, in honor of Flower Friday, I'll show you a few of the flowers that haven't been pounded down by the rain. 

Coneflowers and daisies.

Hostas.

The last clemetis flower.

Now they've gone to seed.

The milkweeds are starting to make seed pods.

I found some pretty purple flowers that I liked!


But ghostwriter said they were weeds.


Take a look at this fantastic mud puddle I found! 


Fortunately, as you may have noticed, I got a hair cut from my favorite groomer Miss Jacquie, so it was easy to wash the mud off my feet. Oh, and Miss Jacquie gave me a blue ribbon!


For my final story, July is a month when we remember two of our angels. Our Miss Ginger crossed the Rainbow Bridge in July of 2010. She was ghostwriter's baby girlie. She had a wonderful singing voice and provided the music for every meal. Here she is sitting in her sunny spot by the back door.


Then there was good old Joey dog who left us on July 30, 2016.


I miss them both very much!


Here's a flash back TDB from 2015 with some pictures of Joey dog:


And that's the news for today!